…Back to Baja
Dogs, of course
This is blog #3 with the agenda of “keeping up and keeping connected.” In the last post, I shared a bit about the dogs of Flora del Mar in Todos Santos. All came out well. Trés-si’s amputation healed beautifully; she’s filled out after being emaciated, and she is now the #1 young troublemaker of the pack (she tried to eat my glasses case and sunglasses this week). Peanut—the former troublemaker with the torn knee ligament—was finally able to calm down and heal successfully. And for those who remember him, Riley is doing better than ever with the pack, aging gracefully in the warm Baja weather.
The trip
As you may recall, at the time of writing we were about to head out on an RV
adventure, leaving Idaho and the Sun Valley Writer’s Conference. It was a good trip.
We started in Yellowstone, taking an excursion with the wolf guides of Northern Yellowstone out of Gardiner, MT. Our number one goal was seeing the wolves reintroduced in to Yellowstone that have had such a dramatic and positive impact on the whole ecology of Yellowstone. Unlike our trip to Africa, they were not easy to spot—about a mile away, visible only through high-powered scopes.
Our guide, who holds a master’s degree in predatory mammals, was a wealth of information about the wolves we were watching and how they compared to many of the animals we’d seen in Africa (closest in behavior to the hyena).
While wolves were hard to see, buffalo were everywhere. What beasts—massive.
Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears, and off we went.
From there, we headed north to Bozeman
to visit with a contingent of the Lanman family, then continued on to
Glacier National Park (gorgeous—rivaling Yosemite in grandeur, in my opinion). We neared Calgary on our way to Banff and Lake Louise. This entire area, while crowded and touristy in the summer, was manageable and the scenery was incredible. I would say the road from
Lake Louise north to Jasper was some of the most magnificent I’ve ever seen.
A devastating wildfire took out a third of Jasper and much of the lower valley trees, but the mountains were still spectacular (enjoyed from e-bike trails).
Our plan was then to continue to Vancouver Island
and down through Washington and Oregon before returning to Balverne Farms in Sonoma. But halfway across British Columbia, en route to Vancouver Island, we called friends from Todos Santos we planned to “drop in on.” They informed us that we were about to run smack into BC Day—described as something akin to the Fourth of July for British Columbia.
All the ferries were already booked. All the campgrounds were reserved. The roads would be parking lots.
We abruptly turned south, gave up on Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest, returned to Boise, and eventually made our way back to Balverne Farms by mid-August.
Liquidate
When Marilyn and I got together, we quickly calculated that between us we had 4 grown children, 9 grandchildren, 6 properties, and 8 dogs. We’ve been very keen on liquidating much of this—mostly the properties, less so the grandchildren. Add in multiple vehicles and a whole lot of “stuff,” and it becomes… a lot.
Balverne Farms is simply too much now: a 4,500-square-foot house on 5.7 acres. We love it, and it’s beautiful, but it’s a lot to pay for and manage. My number one liquidation goal has been to sell Balverne Farms, and that has not gone well. I’ve switched agents recently; it’s back on the market until mid-December, and hopefully we’ll get some action. The greater Northern California market has been at a standstill.
https://vimeo.com/1128461832?fl=pl&fe=sh
We spent much of September and October prepping Balverne Farms for sale, enjoying it—perhaps for the last time—and then returned during the first week of November to Baja: Casa Luna in San José del Cabo and Flora del Mar in Todos Santos. We couldn't resist a little display of patriotism on No Kings Day:
Now we’re exerting a fair amount of attention to liquidating the hotel/Airbnb portion of Marilyn’s beautiful 3 acres on the Pacific coast in Todos Santos. Not unlike N. California there’s a bit of a real estate stall down here in Baja as well.
Regardless, Baja is warm, it’s relaxing, and it’s great to reconnect with the dogs. 😉
We wish you all happy holidays as we head into the last half of November and into December.
Oh yes—the boat
The boat now has a name: Nomadicat. It is about half-finished, with miles of aluminum welding before and behind us and the hybrid motors ordered.
Sea trials are still slated for May/June.
We’re still planning for the Mediterranean to be its primary home base after going down Brittany and the Atlantic sides of France, Spain and Portugal; we’re considering chartering it out during parts of the year and possibly wintering it in the Canary Islands.
If you’d like to subscribe to our blog specifically about the A4702 Nomadicat, let me know in the comments, by text, or wherever, and I’ll add you to the list.
